Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

4 Small Station is Measured by Its Friends By CRAIG RICE Script Editor, Beacon Syndicate, New York rograms Designed to Excite Local Interest Often Prove *lore Popular Than Expensive Talent of Rival Net ]RAIG RICE believes the independent radio station I? the backbone of broadcasting. Her experience, argely with small stations, includes everything rom selling time to performing. Entering radio rom newspaper reporting, she found the experience he had had chasing news served her well. When tornado struck southern Wisconsin, she flew over he stricken area, taking pictures and reporting for ^CLO, Janesville. The story of that experience is eferred to in the accompanying article. Miss Rice, fiesides being a photographer, a flyer, a reporter and radio editor, is a novelist. Two of her novels are p be published this year. Craig Rice OW BIG is the small radio sta'hnl Or — how big is any radio ktion? 5'!Well, station A has 100 watts, ktion B has 1,000. B spends 0,000 a week, A spends $1,000 td has to watch the pennies. B ks a large, high-priced staff, A is .derated by a handful of underbid enthusiasts. B has a 500-mile jdius, A has 50. But these and ndred figures have nothing to do th the measurement of the sta:pn. iWithin A's 50 mile radius, how pny more listeners would rather |ar the programs from A than lorn any other station ? Do the immunity and the individual adrtisers stand solidly back of staan A? And does station A rey that community and individual 'nfidence with actual service? aen station A is one of the big:st — as big as it can or should pe to be. Way back in my first days in idio, I outlined a tentative prolam for a small station, and owed it proudly to an experienced d critical station manager. "Yes," said he, "but remember at every program in the series ust be just as good as ," and named a nation-wide program at is one of the standards of dio production. When I scoffed at that as imposole, he added: "It must be just good because it is directly comting with that program. You are pecting listeners to tune out that ogram and listen to yours." From the idea springs the real sa of measurement for the small ■or large — station. No matter hat area it covers, every program presents must be something that e listeners would rather hear an any other program broadcast the same time. Thus the station manager must measure the size of his station, the time, effort and money put into developing programs — not by the area he covers — but by the time he is on the air. This is no new idea. It's old stuff to every station owner, because if he doesn't know it very thoroughly, he doesn't own the station— the sheriff owns it. But how is it to be done? The handicap is overwhelming. The small station cannot afford highly experienced staff members or expensive musical talent. Yet it is directly competing with programs whose individual cost may be more than the small station's monthly budget. The answer to the small station's greatest problems stands out in two words that might well be written in letters of fire — "Personalize" — "Localize." In other words, the small station's handicaps can be made its greatest assets. It will not be listened to because of the money it spends, the size of its staff or the area it covers — it will be listened to because it is a local station. Its limitations and advantages are one and the same, because, properly handled, they constitute its personality. The ideal small station operates on a first-name basis. It is informal, and it is friendly. It is keenly alive to its community responsibilities. It recognizes its importance as an outlet for community thought and expression. It is always ready to welcome the community into its studios, and ready to go outside its own doors to offer community service. For example, one small station reports as a fair sample of daily telephone calls, a number of requests, a question about the World's Series, a call from someone who has lost a dog, and a plea from an anxious housewife who has caught a turtle and wants the cooking expert to tell her how to make turtle soup. Not an unusual list, considering the calls that come in to every station, but representative of that same "first name" attitude in the tone of those calls — neighbors calling to neighbors. Neighborly Atmosphere LISTENERS who made those calls are listeners because they feel that they are a part of the station itself, and because they feel on firstname terms with everyone connected with it. When the radio is turned on, the voices of their friends are projected into the family circle. They have made up programs with their requests, they have sent recipes to the homemaker's hour. Their children take part in the children's hour broadcasts, and they always feel free to come up to the station, make themselves comfortable in the reception room, listen to the programs . and chat with anyone who has a minute to spare. And in that feeling of very personal friendliness, the station finds its biggest asset. The facts of community service can never be overlooked in the light of the station's actual responsibility to the community and in the light of what the fulfilling of that responsibility can do for the station itself. Again as an example, some time ago the countryside near a small station was swept by a mild tornado. Before the last echoes had died away, the station was sending out information as fast as it could be received, sending calls for relief workers, and reassuring anxious friends and hnuary 15, 1932 • BROADCASTING relatives who telephoned in for information. As long as there was information to give out, the station stayed on the air. Some 8,000 telephone calls came in the night of the tornado, and 15,000 were received the next day. Early the next morning a special plane chartered by the station was flying over the area with an aerial photographer and reporter who happened to be a member of the staff, charting the damage, surveying the scope of the tornado, and taking pictures for the local paper. The complete story of the scene was broadcast as soon as possible, every member of the organization laying aside everything else to offer assistance. By noon of the next day the station was organized to raise funds and get whatever help was needed. Friends and neighbors of the station telephoned in offers of money, food, clothing and shelter— even the loan of threshing machines and hay-balers to the sufferers. A special relief program was organized, every staff artist and many outside the staff volunteering their services. Regular programs were set aside and the relief program was continued as long as requests and offers for help kept pouring in. Good Will Pays AN EMERGENCY, yes, but it was only one link in the chain that binds the station to its community life. In another station, a communityservice program actually saved the station's life. Starting out with a terrific handicap of community indifference, even community resentment, the station struggled along for months on the brink of ruin. Then it occurred to someone on the staff to bring the community into the broadcasting studio in a new way. Half an hour a day was set aside to be given to local organizations. Local service clubs, business men's organizations, parentteacher associations, charity organizations were given a half -hour a week to use as they wished. It was suggested to several luncheon clubs that on each program one member present a fiveminute talk. Consequently, local business men brought into the station as speakers, took a keen interest in the welfare of the station. Visitors came to the station by the hundreds, and each one carried away a feeling of personal interest. The station's eventual success was one result, another was the excellence of the programs developed by the organizations taking part. Some stations feature daily woman's club programs, tied closely with the woman's clubs of the community. One has a little theater of the air, organized by a group of amateur players. In children's clubs, every one of the members feels a sense of responsibility (Continued on page 28) Page 9